Method and apparatus for distributed application execution

• US 20050071421A1
• Filed: 12/17/2002
• Published: 03/31/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Shaikh, Anees A., Verma, Dinesh C., Calo, Seraphin B., Tewari, Renu
• Granted Patent: US 7,447,731 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1021 based on client or server locations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/59 Providing operational support to end devices by off-loading in the network or by emulation, e.g. when they are unavailable

Abstract

This invention provides methods and apparatus for executing applications in a distributed manner employing one or more proxy servers and one origin server. The invention allows the applications to be executed primarily at the proxy servers rather than at the origin servers, thereby gaining in scalability and improved user response time. A redirection mechanism is used to direct requests to one of the proxy servers. The proxy server uses caching techniques to bring information records needed for application execution to the proxy servers. The code required for application execution is also obtained from the origin server. The invention discusses applying this technique to three Web-based applications, namely Web-based auctions, generating personalized content for Web-users, and creating advertisements for users accessing a Web page.

Claims

5. A method for auction distribution comprising:

receiving a plurality of service requests related to a specific auction item;

determining an appropriate server to which to direct the service requests related to the specific auction item;

migrating an auction state for the specific auction item to the appropriate server; and

executing the auction at the appropriate server.

6. A method as recited in claim 5, comprising a limitation selected from a group of limitations consisting of:

wherein the step of executing includes responding to at least one of the user service requests;

wherein the step of executing includes;

obtaining and recording information regarding location of requesters for the item, and constructing a request log which includes a timestamped record of at least some pertinent information for at least one of said service requests related to the specific auction item;

wherein the step of responding includes returning auction results to at least one requester of said service requests related to the specific auction item.

wherein the step of determining includes collecting information about the distribution of requesters.

wherein the step of determining includes computing a migration weight related to the specific auction item for at least one proxy server and a main server, and selecting a particular proxy server having a highest weight as the appropriate server;

wherein the migration weight is determined by a distance to a zone having a largest number of requesters for a specific auction item;

wherein the migration weight is determined by a relative load of a proxy server;

wherein the step of determining includes initiating migration of the auction for the item;

wherein the step of migrating includes sending a message to the appropriate server informing the appropriate server of an intent to migrate the auction state, receiving a positive acknowledgement from the appropriate server, and forwarding subsequent requests for said auction item to the appropriate server;

wherein the auction state includes at least one auction parameter;

wherein the auction parameter includes a parameter from a group of parameters consisting of;

an item description, a log of existing bids, a minimum criterion, or a combination of these;

wherein the step of forwarding employs an HTTP redirect mechanism;

wherein the method further comprises repeating the steps of determining and migrating in accordance with a redetermination criterion;

wherein the method further comprises logging at least a portion of at least one of said service requests related to the specific auction item;

or

any combination of these limitations.

19. An article of manufacture comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code means embodied therein for causing auction distribution, the computer readable program code means in said article of manufacture comprising computer readable program code means for causing a computer to effect the steps of claim 5.

7. A method comprising distributing at least one personalization operation, including the steps of:

receiving at least one service request from a user;

determining an appropriate proxy server to which to direct said at least one service request;

caching a set of information records to the appropriate proxy server; and

personalizing a response provided to the user at the appropriate proxy server using said information records.

8. A method as recited in claim 7, including at least one limitation taken from a group of limitations consisting of:

wherein the step of caching a set of information records comprises caching a set of user profiles at the proxy server;

wherein the step of caching a set of information records includes at least one of caching a set of category records at the proxy server; and

caching a set of templates at the proxy server;

wherein the method further comprises the steps of;

collecting statistics on URLs accessed by the user, sending the statistics to a server, and changing a category of the user on the basis of the statistics;

wherein the step of caching includes periodically refreshing a cache of templates from the origin server;

wherein the step of distributing at least one personalization operation includes personalizing server-based content;

wherein server-based content is Web content;

wherein the step of determining an appropriate proxy server includes employing information related to the user;

wherein the step of personalizing comprises at least one step taken from a group of steps consisting of;

locating a specific user profile for the user, determining a specific category on the basis of the specific user profile, selecting the template for a URL accessed by the user, and generating a response for the user using the template and the category;

wherein the step of caching includes periodically refreshing a cache of user profiles from a server;

or

any combination of these limitations.

17. An article of manufacture comprising a computer usable medium comprising computer readable program code means embodied therein for causing distribution of at least one personalization operation in a network with a plurality of machines, the computer readable program code means in said article of manufacture comprising computer readable program code means for causing a computer to effect the steps of claim 7.

9. An apparatus comprising:

an origin server including a set of information records related to at least one user and a redirection mechanism to send a request from said at least one user to a proxy server; and

at least one proxy server including a cache of information records related to at least one user and program code to personalize server content using information records in the cache of information records,

used in order to distribute at least one personalization operation.

10. An apparatus as in claim 9, wherein the origin server and the proxy server are Web servers.

11. A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code means embodied therein for causing distribution of at least one personalization operation, the computer readable program code means in said computer program product comprising computer readable program code means for causing a computer to effect the functions of claim 9.

12. A method comprising distributing the generation of at least one advertisement, said method including the steps of:

mapping a user request to a category of advertisement types;

caching a set of advertisements;

selecting said at least one advertisement corresponding to the category from the set; and

refreshing the set of advertisements.

1. A method comprising distributing at least one operation of at least one networked application, including the steps of:

directing at least one user request to at least one surrogate server;

caching a set of information records needed for said at least one operation at said at least one surrogate server; and

executing said at least one operation at said at least one surrogate server using the set of information records.

2. A method as recited in claim 1 further comprising, refreshing the set of information records from an origin server.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein said at least one operation is an operation selected from a group of operations consisting of:

processing an auction of an item;

a personalization operation, or

generating advertisements for a client.

4. A method as recited in claim 1, including a step inclusion selected from a group of step inclusions consisting of:

the step of directing includes receiving a plurality of service requests related to a specific auction item, and determining an appropriate server to which to direct the service requests related to the specific auction item, and migrating an auction state for the specific auction item to the appropriate server;

the step of directing includes receiving at least one service request from a user, and determining an appropriate proxy server to which to direct said at least one service request;

the step of executing includes personalizing a response provided to the user at the appropriate proxy server using said information records;

the step of caching includes caching a set of advertisements;

the step of executing includes mapping a user request to a category of advertisement types, and selecting said at least one advertisement corresponding to the category from the set;

or

any combination of these step inclusions.

13. A method as in claim 12, further comprising a step inclusion selected from a group of step inclusions consisting of:

wherein the step of caching includes maintaining separate caches for a first category of advertisements and a second category of advertisements;

wherein the step of refreshing includes selecting at least one particular advertisement to be cached in maintaining a target display rate for showing said at least one particular advertisement;

wherein the step of selecting includes modifying a Web page to include said at least one advertisement;

or

any combination of these step inclusions.

14. A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for distributing the generation of at least one advertisement, said method steps comprising the steps of claim 12.

15. An apparatus comprising:

an origin server comprising a copy of at least one advertisement to be displayed to a user; and

at least one proxy server including;

an classifier module to map a user request into a category of advertisement types;

a cache of advertisements for said category, said cache being refreshed from the copy at the origin server; and

a selector module for selecting an advertisement from the cache and including it in the response to the user,

in order to distribute a generation process of said at least one advertisement.

16. An article of manufacture comprising a computer usable medium comprising computer readable program code means embodied therein for causing operation distribution of at least one networked application, the computer readable program code means in said article of manufacture comprising computer readable program code means for causing a computer to effect the steps of claim 1.

18. An article of manufacture comprising a computer usable medium comprising computer readable program code means embodied therein for causing distribution of the generation of at least one advertisement in a network with a plurality of machines, the computer readable program code means in said article of manufacture comprising computer readable program code means for causing a computer to effect the steps of claim 12.

20. A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code means embodied therein for causing distribution of a generation process of said at least one advertisement, the computer readable program code means in said computer program product comprising computer readable program code means for causing a computer to effect the functions of claim 15.

15-1. An apparatus as described in claim 14, wherein at least one of the origin server and said at least one proxy server is a Web-server.